6. Funniest one
Aldien didn't expect anything different, forming teams before assigning positions had to lead to only one thing: a test not included in the program.
Well, that old man wasn't supposed to be there either.
In any case, he had already chosen his allies already at the first skimming, they were the strongest.
«Mh ...» neither of his two companions spoke, better.
They had just entered the door, they seemed to be walking down an endless stone corridor, leaving those other pawns behind.
Then the floor opened and they fell into a tunnel.
Luckily no one screamed, Aldien couldn't stand loud noises.
As they slipped into the darkness, he thought of the others in the Winter Regime.
The only one that was almost interesting was that girl.
She had three leaves of fate: a possible help or possible danger.
Too insecure.
"It is possible to go back from the barrier if you have not formed a contract", "She'll have crossed the barrier for a temporary malfunction. Anomalies happen"
Bullshit.
Aldien knew it: this girl was nothing normal, but in terms of power and skill, lost as she was, she would be useless.
It would have been great to kill a girl with three leaves of fate, but the girl, Miki, had failed.
He still remembered the girl in front of the barrier, she had big brown eyes, they looked at her with fear, with curiosity, with anger, with kindness.
He hated it.
He looked at her as if he had to give her all the answers she was looking for.
It was so imperfect that it drove him crazy.
Before long, he erased that girl from his thoughts.
The important thing is to pass this test now.
At the end of the tunnel, they found themselves on sand. One look was enough: an arena.
On a balcony the old man was sitting in an armchair looking at that damned clock.
Ah, I get it.
«Mr. Xulio, what should we do?»
Ah, it was his teammate, Sky, who had spoken.
The other, Dianthe, remained silent.
The 28th princess of the energy kingdom, of the third generation.
Powerful, but inexperienced.
The 12 royal families had been blessed with divine power centuries ago, it was rare for a direct descendant of one of the families to be chosen to enter Deorum.
It has happened in the past, princes and princesses are known to have been the closest to becoming Gods.
Yet Aldein saw her as a frightened girl, too weak, but an important ally.
How boring.
Aldien scanned the arena, looking for something to distract him.
He was looking for nothing else in life: just fun.
He was always bored and he didn't like it at all.
I'm already perfect, at least, almost.
The only thing he lacked was being a God, then he could consider himself truly perfect.
It would have been fun.
«Here are the first.» grunted the old man.
A trio entered shouting through a hole in the wall of the arena, they all ended up face down.
A few minutes later another trio came down and then another.
The last trio, he wasn't surprised, was the one that included the girl with the three leaves of destiny.
What was she called? Name?
With her was the other mediocre girl with green hair: she was so energetic that he got tired just looking at her.
Finally there was that one.
Kein De Forles, the direct successor of the De Forles family, the most powerful after the royal one.
In the official news, he was supposed to become the future king of the kingdom of fire.
Then that incident happened: he would have been a decent companion, after all he is the son of a war general, but he has become an unstable person.
The old man got up.
«Well, as you may have already guessed, the teams trained now will be the ones you drag on to the final exam, in a week's time.» he coughed, looking at his watch for another moment.
«From now on you will do everything in turn, bond or do what you want between you, we will have two meetings a week, one theoretical and one physical. It won't be easy, but first ...
«Show me what you're made of. Don't kill yourselves, but the rest is admissible.»
The old man sat back down, but no one seemed to start attacking.
The weakest are the leaf girl team and the red-haired one, so ...
Aldien pulled out his palm, pointing to the right, without even looking where - he already knew that his shot would hit the center - a trail of ice reached the team on his right.
A couple of screams and a few meters away, three people were already on the ground, bleeding.
Aldien took another step forward.
The most decent team was eliminated.
How boring.
«Fight.»
A boy screamed, running towards him.
The one with the red hair, Leonard Reiss, the Reiss family, third most powerful in the realm of fire.
Mediocre.
Aldien wanted to stab him, but he just changed: water.
Leo set his right hand on fire: the blue flames ran in his blood, he wanted to release them on that arrogant one.
Die!
Aldien with a wave of his hand put out his fire, engulfing the flames with water.
Blue flames: large capacity and freedom of use, but little heat.
Imperfect.
You could see that he was amazed at the change from ice to water, Aldien decided to stick to those two elements only.
«Cretin.» Leo, with a smile, ducked down, Estelle climbed on his back, rushed with an attack towards Aldien, her eyes glinting yellow.
Magic of light. Powerful, but difficult to control.
Leo wasn't the only one with companions.
Dianthe drew her sword, mid-air wounding Estelle in the stomach.
«Este-» Leo didn't have time to finish, Aldien stabbed him too with a spike of ice.
Aldein left Dianthe behind him, staring at the blood as if it were hers.
Only the hooded guy remained behind, but he slowly raised his hands.
«I give up.»
Even fighting is boring ...
Well, 2 teams out.
Now...
Aldien looked around quickly.
His eyes widened, amazed.
The fourth team was gone.
-
«Fight.»
Name didn't like Aldein. For some reason she associated him with the dark, despite the blond hair and the fine and elegant look, his eyes were just two black pools, he seemed to think too much.
She had a bad feeling.
In the blink of an eye, Aldein had defeated Ross's team with a single wave of his hand.
Ice.
Like him. Just ice, beautiful, but sharp, crystalline at the tips, but opaque at the root. Cold and dangerous.
«Move!» Kein yanked her by the arm.
She hadn't even noticed that Fera, bent to the ground, was already looking for roots.
I have to react too!
Name had no idea what she was like: weak and frail? Strong and combative?
She didn't like swords, for sure.
But now she was here, here and now she had to go on, fight.
Within seconds Fera, Kein and Name were underground.
Name was surprised, those roots looked old and certainly were deep underground.
«Are you sure ... they haven't ... seen us?» Fera asked, with difficulty.
«I met him, that one there. He is a monster. Excellent in battle and strategy, he looks like he's made of plastic, he has no weaknesses.»
«In short, he's really full of himself.» he added.
Fera hesitated.
«So he's like you.»
«Shut up! Do as I told you.»
Name was confused.
«When did you plan all this?»
«While you were looking at Mr. Wonder out there as if he were a god.»
Name looked at him spellbound, yes, but it was because of his brutality, no wonder.
She would have liked, once again, to be useful, but he wasn't sure what to do.
«What can I do?» Name asked quickly.
Fera was focused on the roots, it seemed that they were ... moving.
«What can you do?» Kein replied bluntly.
Name thought about it for a while, nothing flashed into her mind.
«I can run.» she said, unwittingly.
It wasn't really a skill, but as soon as she woke up a day earlier, she ran for a while without feeling tired.
It wasn't much, but it was all she had at the moment.
«If there's one thing I know about that, it's that he doesn't expect the unexpected.» Kein murmured. It was strange to see him go so quickly from serious to playful and back again.
«Perfect.» it was Fera who answered, smiling, with her forehead full of sweat, she looked at Name.
«We'll do that then.»
-
The old man smiled at him from the balcony.
Curse you.
Dianthe was looking around holding the sword.
She was trembling. Already.
Ugh, at the sight of the blood she starts shaking. She's useless like that.
Sky was his real achievement, but not for now, for now he was just a scared kid.
«Mr. Aldien ...»
They probably hid thanks to the help of the green one. They will wait for the right moment to attack.
«Mr. Aldien ...»
They could come out from anywhere, the important thing is to keep the right distance, one and a half meters is enough. Kein is the only one who can have a chance, of course, in close combat, I just have to react with ice as soon as-
«Mr. Aldien!» Sky shook him, Aldien woke up.
In the middle of the arena, a girl with snow-colored hair had just emerged from the ground.
She.
Aldien fired a volley of ice, but the girl even before he reached her began to run.
Aldien found it ridiculous.
«Get her!» he ordered Sky and Dianthe.
The two obeyed, starting to chase her.
Dianthe's blade sizzled with purple, with a slide she threw a light bolt at the girl, but it hit the wall.
What a nuisance.
Aldien spread both arms and created two walls of ice, locking the girl inside.
Dianthe nearly wounded her, but then roots sprouted from under the ground, lifting her up and making her drop her sword.
The same thing happened to Sky.
Ugh ... What a damn mess.
Holding his head with one hand, Aldien set his left arm on fire.
I didn't have to show that I had more than one element and I'm already on the third ...
The fire quickly destroyed the roots.
There was no sign of the other two, whatever strategy they wanted to implement, it had been useless.
Name, the leaf girl, was pinned to the wall, looking scared.
No...
She looks happy.
Wait.
Why doesn't my team get up?
Dianthe and Sky were lying on the ground, unconscious.
Behind Aldien, Kein had rushed towards him, sword drawn.
«Pathetic.»
A second later, Kein found himself with a thin stick of ice stuck in his shoulder.
How boring.
«Did you think you could fool me like this?» Aldien turned behind him.
The green-haired girl stood in front of Name, her arms outstretched as a cover.
There is no point in protecting her.
She's too weak. It's just a burden.
«Don't you want to give up?» Aldein approached the girls.
«Just give up.»
Green hair leaned to the ground.
«You give up!»
A semicircle of roots emerged from the ground, ready to swallow it.
They were bigger and thicker, but still useless.
«Tch.» with a burst of flames, the roots fell one after another.
A lot of dust arose from the ground.
«Your tactic was to have white hair chase me, so that I would narrow the arena, as it did, then you would have the failure attack back there first, to distract me, and finally you. In all of this you also captured my companions, squeezing them lightly so as to block their circulation temporarily and knock them out. The only thing you didn't foresee were my flames ... and my power.» with a smile illuminated by his fiery hand, Aldien found himself a step away from the girl.
«Not bad at all, for the first time.»
Aldien grabbed the girl by the ponytail, then kicked her in the stomach to calm her down.
«You, back there. You annoy me, you won't probably pass the first exam, and you would like to become a God?» Aldien chuckled.
Do you understand it? Destiny will have chosen you. You will also be more special than everyone, but if you continue to be so weak and imperfect, you will be the first to die.
«I ...» the girl started to get up from the ground, her lips trembled.
She wasn't looking at Aldien, but at the girl he held.
«I don't want to be a God.»
It was the funniest thing he heard that day.
With a leap forward, Aldien was hit with a punch.
No.
It was too strong for such a weak body.
Name was leaning over Fera, trying to help her. She was sure of only one thing: her fist hadn't hit him.
It had been something else.
Probably that white glitter around her fist.
Aldien, sitting on the ground, smiled.
He stared at her, lost in thought.
«I give up.» that said, he layed down on the floor, staring at the distant ceiling.
Fera stood up.
«Just to laugh in your face. Our strategy has always been not to have a strategy.»
Yes, he had guessed it.
It had all been done too confusing and too fast.
All by chance, yet he had foreseen the case as well, except for that last punch.
Once he made sure that Fera was okay, Name hurried over to Kein.
«You're funny.»
It was Aldien who spoke, still staring at nothing.
Name didn't even think about it, Kein was more important, he was bleeding.
Aldien, the prodigy boy, called perfect, who rarely enjoyed himself had a single thought.
She's not boring at all.